SEASIDE, Calif. — Not one, not two, but three Hollywood endings capped a magical senior day for the No. 5 ranked Cal State Monterey Bay softball team in its sweep of Cal State Stanislaus at the Otter Sports Complex Saturday. It wasn't just that the 6-1 and 11-2 victories gave CSUMB sole possession of first place in the CCAA race heading into the final weekend of the season—though that would have been special enough—it was the flourish with which the Otters finished the day.
Third baseman
Alissa Greenhaw (Galt/Cosumnes River College) capped her final regular season home game by hitting a walk-off, 2-run home run to end Game 2. Greenhaw's homer came mere seconds after Matt Urakami delivered a walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning against Holy Names University for the Otter baseball team just across the OSC.
As if that weren't enough, it got even better. After a moving ceremony honoring the six Otter seniors following the sweep, senior
Trina Solario (Manteca/San Joaquin Delta College) took one final walk to her position at short, where her boyfriend, Jake Etcheverry, proposed to her (she said yes).
But back to the action between the lines. The Otters ran their current winning streak to a season-best 10 games with Saturday's victories. They improved to 41-9 overall and 25-7 in the CCAA. In the process, CSUMB became the first CCAA team since UC Davis (2000-03) to post three 40-win seasons in a 4-year span.
Coupled with Humboldt State's second consecutive split at Chico State, the Otter took a 1-game lead in the conference race with four games to play. All four of those will take place next weekend in Arcata, where the Otters and Lumberjacks will decide the CCAA title head-to-head.
Senior
Cori Reinhardt (Riverside Poly) made just one mistake in the opener to improve to 25-2 on the season. She ties
Lindsey Clarkson's (Fresno/Central HS) CSUMB season record for victories set in 2014.
Bianca Noriega (Ventura/Camarillo HS) gave Reinhardt all the support she would need by belting her team-leading ninth home run of the season, a 2-run shot, in the bottom of the first inning. Stanislaus pitcher Jessica Varady led off the second inning with her sixth homer of the season, but it was all Otters from there on out.
Doubles by Reinhardt,
Anneliese Lopez (Ventura/Buena HS) and
Jenae Coleman (Castaic/Hart HS) highlighted a 4-run Otter third. Reinhardt shut the Warriors out over the final six innings to secure the win.
Stanislaus scored single runs in the first and second innings of the nightcap to take its first lead of the weekend. It didn't last long, however, as a pinch hit sac fly from Coleman and a 2-out,-2-run double by Greenhaw in the bottom of the second put CSUMB on top, 3-2. Back-to-back home runs by
Madison Casto (Sunnyvale/Homestead HS) and Lopez capped a 4-run third inning that put the Otters firmly in control.
Clarkson, meanwhile, settled into a groove after the second Warrior run. She no-hit Stanislaus over the final 3 1/3 innings to earn her 14th win of the season.
RBI singles by Casto and Lopez in the fourth inning pushed the lead to 9-2. Three batters after Clarkson singled to lead off the Otter fifth, Greenhaw hammered a 1-1 pitch from Natalie Rendon over the wall in left center to end the game via run rule.
That's when the real fun began.
Here's the wind-up and the pitch… | ...and it's a home run! Otter senior shortstop Trina Solario and her new fiance, Jake Etcheverry. |
GO OTTERS!